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General Emerson H. Liscum. 



HONORS TO A HERO. 



PROCEEDINGS 



Attending the Unveiling and Presentation 
of a Portrait of 



GENERAL EMERSON H. LISCUM, 

Colonel of the Ninth Infantry, U. J. A. and Brigadier 
General of Volunteers, 



In the Hall of the Vermont House of Representatives, 



OCTOBER 23, 1902 






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PROCEEDINGS IN JOINT ASSEMBLY. 
October 23, 1902. 2.30 P. M. 

The Senate and House of Representatives met in the 
Hall of the House of Representatives, in pursuance of a 
joint resolution, which was read l)y the Clerk and is as 
follows : 

Resolved by the Senate and House of Represeiitafk'es: 

That the two houses meet in joint assenil^ly on 
Thursday, October 23rd, instant, at two o'clock and thirty 
minutes for the purpose of receiving and unveiling the 
portrait of the late Brigadier General Emerson H. Liscum 
and listening to an address on his life and military service 
by Honoralile G. G. Benedict. 

His Honor Zed S. Stanton, 

President of the Senate, in the Chair. 

Frederick G. Feeetwood, 

Secretary of State, Clerk. 

The Joint Assembly dissolved. 

Frederick G. Feeetwood, 

Secretary of State. 



JOINT RESOLUTION. 

Rcsoli'cd hv the Senate and House of Represeiitafk^es: 

That the Clerk oi the House of Representatives is 
hereliv directed to procure the printing of one thousand 
copies of the report of the proceedings attending tlie un- 
veiling and presentation of the portrait of General E. H. 
Liscum on Octoher 23d, 1902, for the use of the General 
Assembly. 

John H. MERRiFiiaD, 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

Zed S. Stanton, 

President of the Senate. 

Approved November 11, 1902. 
John G. McCuleough, 

Governor. 

State oe Vermont, 
Office of the Secretary of State. 

I hereby certify that the foregoing is a true copy of 
the original resolution approved November 11, 1902. 

Frederick G. Fleetwood, 

Secretary of State. 
December 2, 1902. 



PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS. 

The Legislature of Vermont, at its session following 
the receipt of intelligence of the death of Brigadier Gen- 
eral Emerson H. Liscum, who fell in battle in front of the 
City of Tien Tsin, China, in July, 1900, authorized the 
Governor to procure a life-size portrait of Gen. Liscum, to 
be placed in the State House. This duty was performed ; 
the portrait was painted, and on the 23d of October, 1902, 
during the legislative session, was unveiled and presented 
to the State, with impressive public exercises. 



THE PUBLIC EXERCISES. 

The Hall of the House of Representatives, in which 
the presentation took place, was filled with a large and 
distinguished audience, comprising the Governor and his 
Staff, the members of the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives, present in Joint Assembly, and many prominent 
citizens. The portrait rested upon an easel in front of 
the Speaker's desk, and was covered with the national 
colors. Mrs. Liscum, her sister, Miss Diven, and friends, 
had seats near the portrait. 

The Assembly was called to order by the President of 
the Senate, and the portrait was unveiled by General 
Theodore S. Peck, and Col. G. G. Benedict, representing 
the Vermont Commandery of the ^Military Order of the 
Loyal Legion of the United States, of which General 
Liscum was a member; and was presented by Ex-Gov- 
ernor William W. vStickney in the following words: 



EX-GOVERXOR STICKXEY'S PRESEXTATION. 

Mr. President: 

Vermont has a splendid history, which is the pride 
and inspiration of all her people. It is everywhere re- 
cognized that her pre-eminence both in peace and in war 
is altogether in excess of her circnmscril)ed boundaries 
and her nKumtainous territory. The welfare of the 
State requires that we should never forget the true 
source of her greatness. For in all the days of the years 
of her statehood, distinction has iDeen achieved solely by 
the character and conduct of her men. who knew their 
duty and liad the courage to do it. 

In providing memorials for such sons, whose praise 
grows not old, the State honors herself and at the same 
time teaches a needed lesson to each succeeding genera- 
tion. Therefore in and about this capitol stand truphies 
and statues, and pendant on its walls are tablets and 
portraits which "recall the records of imperishable deeds" 
and perpetuate names that deserve to be remembered. 
And as the vears go by Vermont continues to a Id lustre 
to her roll of honor and to grow in the wealth of patri- 
otism. 



Touched in heart l^y the devotion to duty of one of 
her sons the Legislature at its last session adopted a 
joint resolution which reads as follows : 

In consideration of the distinguislied valor of Brigadier- 
General Emerson H. Liscum, commanding the Ninth U. S. In- 
fantry, who gave his life for the flag in the assault at the siege 
of Tien Tsin, China, July 13, 1900, be it 

Tyesolvecl by the General Assembly of the State of Vermont: 

That the Governor be, and is hereby authorized in behalf 
of the people of the State to contract with a painter of com- 
petent ability and experience for the painting of a portrait of 
General Liscum, to be suitably inscribed and placed in the State 
Capitol in commemoration of his distinguished service to his 
country, and as a token of affection and admiration of the peo- 
ple of his native State. 

In ohedience to the dut}- imposed by this act, INIr. 
Walter Gilman Page of Boston, an artist of good repute, 
was g"i\'en the commission. He has faithfully performed 
his work and produced a portrait which is a good likeness 
and most satisfactory to General Liscum's family and 
friends. 

And now I have the honor to report that this com- 
pletes the duty assigned to me, and here in the presence 
of His Excellency the Governor, and the General As- 
sembly of Vermont, I deli\Tr the portrait and accompanv- 
ing- tal^let to the State. May they be placed near the old 



battle flags of the War of the Great Rebelhon, which are 
and I trust ever will be, 

"Telling of men, that in battle array 
Ready in heart and ready in hand 
March with banner, and bugle, and fife, 
To the death, for their native land." 

The portrait was accepted by Governor John G. Mc- 
Culloiigh, as follows : 



GOVERNOR McCULLOUGH'S ACCEPTANCE. 

Mr. President. Governor Stickncy, an\d Gentlemen of the 

Joint Assembly: 

It is my pleasant duty to accept, in the name and on 
behalf of the State, this portrait of General Liscmn. That 
it is a true and faithful likeness is attested by her who 
knows better than any other, and who graces by her sym- 
pathetic presence this occasion, and by his many friends. 
Let this canvas, the token of the admiration and affection 
of the people of his native State, — as the resolution of the 
General Assembly of two years ago expresses it, — con- 
tinue for the unborn generations of the future to look 
down upon, and inspire the observing youth ni Vermont 
with the same feeling of loyalty, the same fidelity to duty, 
the same ardent patriotism, the same love of country and 
of the flag, as during his whole life actuated and influenced 
the noble, lirave and heroic original. 

But it is not my privilege to deliver a memorial 
address. The faithful portraiture of General Liscum's 
life work is reserved for Colonel Benedict. It rests 
with me only to say in a word, that General Liscum 
was the same great soldier, whether risking his life or 



spilling his blood at Big Bethel, or Cedar Alountain, or 
Gettysburg in the War for Liberty and Union; — or risk- 
ing his life and spilling his blood at San Jnan Hill in the 
\\'ar for Humanity; — or falling at last like a Soldier of 
the Cross (3n the other side 'if the globe beneath the 
walls of Tien Tsin, in the War for Civilization and 
Christianity. 

Let this portrait then fittingly and forever perpetu- 
ate the memory of a life dedicated in one war to Lib- 
ertv, in another to Humanity, and in a third to Chris- 
tianity. 

The Memorial Address of the occasion was then de- 
li\ered by Colonel George Grenville Benedict, as follows : 




George Grenville Benedict. 



COL. BENEDICT'S ADDRESS. 

Mr. President, Governor McCnllougJi, and Ladies and 

Gentlemen: 

The career of Gen. Emerson H. Liscum was that of 
a model soldier. He was born July i6, 1841, in Hunt- 
ington, Chittenden county, removing thence to Burlington 
in his childhood with the family of his father, Air. John 
Liscum, who was for many years a respected citizen of 
that city. He is remembered in Burlington as a bright 
and manly boy. His taste for military life was early de- 
veloped. He had hardly got his growth before he be- 
came a member of the "Howard Guard" of Burlington, 
one of the few companies of uniformed militia which 
were keeping up some semblance of military organization 
in Vermont before the outbreak of the Civil War. The 
down of early manhood was on his cheek when the echoes 
of the guns that opened on Fort Sumter, woke the sound- 
est sleepers in the North from their dreams of peace, and 
he was but nineteen, when, in April, 1861, he enlisted as a 
Union volunteer. He went to the front a few days later 
as a corporal in Co. H, of the First Regiment of Vermont 
Volunteers. He was with the regiment when, under Gen. 



John W. Phelps, it made, at Newport News, the first mil- 
itary occupancy of the hostile portion of the soil of Vir- 
ginia that was made by the Union troops, and he took 
part on the loth of June, at Big Bethel, Virginia, in the 
first engagement of the war, dignified by the title of a 
battle; the first assault by Union infantry upon confed- 
erate entrenchments ; and the first experience of Vermont 
troops under fire, in the great war for the Union. 

A few months after the expiration of the brief 
term of service of the First Vermont, young Liscum, 
on the I St of February, 1862, enlisted in the Twelfth U. 
S. Infantry, and was soon again at the front. The 12th 
infantry was a part of Prince's brigade of Augur's di- 
vision of Gen. Banks's corps, of the Army of Virginia, 
which in midsummer of that year was confronting the 
enemy between the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers, 
while McClellan was threatening Richmond. Liscum's 
bright and cool courage soon attracted notice, and he 
was promoted through the non-commissioned grades of 
corporal and sergeant to be first sergeant of the A com- 
pany in the second battalion of the Twelfth. In the bloody 
battle of August 9, 1862, at Cedar Mountain, fought by 
Banks and Stonewall Jackson with a loss of 3,000 men 
in killed and wounded on the two sides, Liscum was 
wounded in the left elbow. He is mentioned bv name in 



the report of the battalion commander as having rendered 
gallant service in that battle, and is also mentioned by 
name in the report of Gen. Augur, commanding the di- 
vision. He was Ijack in the ranks as soon as the wound 
healed and shared the fortunes of the army under Gen- 
erals Pope, McClellan and Burnside during the remainder 
of the vear 1862 — a year marked by many battles in- 
cluding those of the Second Bull Run, Antietam, and 
Fredericks1)urgh. At the close of the year the 12th in- 
fantrv was a part of Sykes's division of the Fifth Army 
Corps, composed almost wholly of regulars. 

In Februarv, 1863, he received his first commission 
— a promotion from the ranks to a second lieutenancy 
in the Twelfth Infantrv — followed three months later by 
a promotion to Ije first lieutenant. He commanded his 
company in the battle of Chancellorsville, May i and 2, 
1863, and on the second day at Gettysburg, in the portion 
of that field where the Fifth corps replaced the broken 
lines of Sickles's Third corps, and with terrible loss held 
the position in front of Little Round Top. The Twelfth 
Infantrv suffered severely at the foot of that hill, and Lis- 
cum fell there with a bullet wound in the right thigh. 

In the Wilderness campaign, the following May, 
Liscum was detailed as ambulance officer for his division 
of the Fifth corps — an office charged wnth responsible 



duties in l)attle, often involving serious risk, as shown 
by the lists of killed and wounded. The chief ambulance 
officer of the corps, in his report, commends Lieut. Lis- 
cum for his coolness in danger and faithful performance 
of dut}' in that 1il(^orl}' campaign. In the Cold Harljor 
campaign, he especially distinguished himself in the bat- 
tle of Bethesda Church, June 2, 1864, and was brevetted 
captain for gallant service in that battle, and in the final 
campaign 1)efore Richmond. 

In Jul}', 1866, he was appointed a captain in the 
24th U. S. Infantry, composed of colored troops. In 
July, 1870. he was transferred to the 19th U. S. Infantry. 
In JMay, '92, he was promoted to be major of the 22d 
Infantry, and in ^lay, '96, he became lieutenant-colonel 
of the 24th Infantry. His service for the thirtv years 
follciwing the close of the Civil \A'ar was much of it on 
the Western frontier, and in the campaigns against the 
Ute and other war-like Indian triljes on the plains. The 
details of this service have not been at my command; but 
I know that it was faithful and efficient service. 

In the war with Spain, in Cuba, Col. Liscum command- 
ed the 24th Infantry, which was part of the third brigade 
of Kent's division of the Fifth Army Corps. The brigade 
had a prominent part, July i, 1898, in the storming of 
San Juan Hill, the capture of which sealed the fate of 



Santiago. As the brigade moved out int(j open ground 
in front of the Spanish intrenchments, it came under a 
heav\- tire, by which Col Wikoff, commaniHng the brig- 
ade, was kihed.and fifteen minutes later Lieut. -Col. Worth, 
13th Infantry, who succeeded to the command, was se- 
verely wounded. The command of the Ijrigade then de- 
volved upon Liscum, but had not been exercised by him 
manv minutes when he fell, struck in the breast by a 
Mauser bullet which passed through the right side of his 
body and out through the shoulder blade, carrying with 
it fragments of the bone. He was borne back to a hol- 
low through which ran the San Juan creek, whose banks 
were co\'ere(l with wounded men. To the surgeons who 
came to him, he said: "Help those men first, they need 
it more than I do," and lifting himself upon his unshat- 
tered shoulder, he ordered back to the charging line such 
of the men near him as were fit for duty. Nine months 
of sick leave and a slow recovery (clue in large part to 
the nursing' of his devoted wife), followed, though it 
never liecame complete. He was promoted to be a brig- 
adier-general of volunteers for gallant service in Cuba ; 
was assigned to the C(jmmand of a brigade in the Eighth 
corps ; and as soon as he reported for dutv was (Ordered 
to the Philippines. There he was assigned to the com- 
mand of a brigade and of the important province of Tar- 



lac. in Luzon. He dispersed the insurgent forces in the 
pro\'ince. and the first organized surrender of a considera- 
ble armed body of insurgents was made to him. He 
brushed the insurgents from the line of railway ; captured 
hundreds of rifles, and by his wise, just and humane ad- 
ministratinn after armed resistance had lieen cjuelled, he 
was able to leave the district as thoroughly pacified as any 
district in the archipelago. Meanwhile, his volunteer 
appointment having lapsed, Liscum had been assigned to 
the colonelcy of the Ninth Infantry, then on duty in Luzon 
— a regiment with a long and honorable record, whose 
commander in the Mexican War was another Vermonter, 
in the person of Colonel Truman B. Ransom, formerly 
President of Norwich University, who fell at the head 
of his regiment in the storming of the Bishop's Palace on 
the heights of Chepultepec. 

In June. 1900, the Ninth Infantry was selected to form 
the American contingent of the allied forces sent to 
China to relieve the siege of the legations in Pekin. It 
was so chosen because of its splendid record, and because 
the utmost confidence was placed in the discretion and 
ability of Col. Liscum to perform a difficult and trying 
duty under the e}'es of the soldiers of England. Russia, 
Germany, France. Italy, Austria and Japan. \Miat 
credit the performance of that duty reflected on the 



United States, we all know. Liscum landed with his 
command, 1,350 strong, at Taku, China, on the 9th of 
July, and pushed right on to take part in the assault on 
the walled city of Tien Tsin, which barred the way to 
the Chinese capital. In the attack on this city, July 13, 
Liscum, under the orders of the British General Dorward 
directing him to support the brave Japanese, was sent into 
a position of the utmost ditficulty and danger. Passing- 
through a gate in the mud wall which formed the outer 
defence of the cit\', the regiment found itself in a cul de 
sac — before it the frowning city wall, with a deep moat 
outside of it, and upon the right tiank a line of fortified 
mud houses, from which came a murderous enfilading 
rifle fire. To silence this Liscum ordered his men to 
charge the houses. The ground to be coA^ered was 
marshy and crossed by ditches. The men had strug'gled 
to within forty yards of the houses, when the color bearer 
fell. Col. Liscum seized and raised the cO'lors, and a 
moment later fell, shot through the abdomen. "I'm hit," 
he said to an officer who ran to him. "Gee at 'em if you 
can." Then to the men, "Don't retieat — keep firing." 
These were his last words. Major Regan, his next in 
command, rmd three captains were struck down and the 
men, seeing that further advance was impossible, sought 
shelter in the ditches, and held their ])lace until nightfall. 



when the}" made their wav back, bringing with them 
the I^ikIv (if Cob Li>cum, and the liodies of many of their 
nnmber, killed and wounded. 

Col. Liscum's remains were brought home and in- 
terred with high honors in the XatiiMial cemetery at Ar- 
lington. President ]\IcKinley and manv men of high dis- 
tinction in military and civil stations being in sorrowful 
attendance. 

Some of us may stand in days to come bv the grave 
of General Liscum on the shore of the Potomac, and we 
w ill say to him. and (^f him. in the words of Bayard Tay- 
lor's "Song of the Camp." which to me is one of the most 
touching of the war lyrics of otu" language : 

"Sleep soldier, still in honored rest, 
Your truth and valor wearing, 
The bravest are the tenderest 
The loving are the daring." 

General Liscum was married in 1867 to ]\Iiss Ma}- 
Diven. daughter of Gen. A. S. Diven of Elmira. X. Y. 
Into the sacred circle of their private life it is not for us 
to enter, further than to know that she was a fit com- 
panion, brave and self-reliant, sharing his patriotic spirit, 
cheering him l)v her companionship and her care — as 
true and devoted a wife as he was true, faithful and de- 
\"Oted as a husband. 



Emerson Li scum's career as a soldier was marked 
bv thorough master}^ of his profession in all its details ; 
l)y high spirit, coolness and indomital)le courage in ac- 
tion ; b}' absolute integrity, and by marked courtesy. As 
a commander he had the fullest contidence, respect and 
affection of his men. As a companion he was genial, 
and clean in speech and thought. He was a genuine 
Vermonter, proud of his State, her history, her soldiers 
and her people. He became a member of the First 
Church of Burlington in his youth, retained his connec- 
tion therewith until his death, and did no discredit to his 
Christian pnjfession. He cared not for notoriety. No 
correspondents, charged to send praises, inspired or un- 
inspired, to the newspapers, were around his headquar- 
ters. He owed his successive promotions to sheer merit, 
and by such merit alone he won a national fame. 

The issue of Harper's Illustrated Weekly for Memo- 
rial Day, 1901, contained a striking cartoon. It depicts a 
vast parade of veterans and school children passing be- 
fore the guardian genius of America, who leans upon a 
shield inscribed on which are the names of Washington, 
Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Lawton and Liscum. 
Who will say that our modest Vermont hero was not 
worthily included in that list of shining names, crowned 
with immortal honor? It is most fitting that his portrait 



should adorn the capitol of his native State, and com- 
mend to generations to come the lesson of his noble ex- 
ample. 



The portrait was then taken bv the members of the 
Governor's stalT to the place where it was to hang, near 
the entrance to the Hall of the House, accompanied by 
Mrs. Liscum and an Escort of Honor comprising Gov- 
ernor McCullough, Ex-Governors Pingree, Ormsbee and 
vStickney, Colonel Benedict, Colonel Eugene D. Dim- 
mick, 2n(l U. S. Cavalry, commanding Fort Ethan 
Allen: Cokjnel E. M. Coates, U. S. A. retired, late 
commanding officer of the 12th U. S. Infantry, in which 
General Luscum served during the war for the Union ; 
Commander Allan D. Brown, U. S. X.. retired. Rep- 
resentatives W. S. Vincent, member fn^m Burlington, 
J. S. Sweet, member from Huntington, and C. C. Miller, 
member from Burlington in 1900, who introduced the 
resolution authorizing the Governor to procure the portrait. 

The ceremonies closed with the hanging of the 
painting in the place assigned to it. 



OCT 13 1903 



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